[Sidponcho]

Thanks Keith...you have a lot of experience! How many build sheets went down the line with each car in 68? Did a build sheet travel the line with the gas tank?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Sidponcho

Thanks Keith...you have a lot of experience! How many build sheets went down the line with each car in 68? Did a build sheet travel the line with the gas tank?

Any place were build information needed to be broadcast to a remote part of the plant and then that part conveyed to the main line, or where the operator had to choose between various option content for a specific car. Usually that means on top of the tank, under the carpet, inside the seats, inside the door trim, behind the A pillar trim or behind the headliner.

So five or six, plus maybe one taped to the front of the frame rails, one on the front of the car (on final line) and one each side on the quarter panel. Those are all gathered up and thrown away.

I should add that some workers got "all" the build sheets, still connected together from the tractor-paper printout. Guys that had to know what was coming for the day - like the manual floor shift guy - would skim through all the build sheets for the day looking for a particular RPO code (like M20). He would sit down at the picnic table before the shift and circle all of them with his red crayon so he (a) would know how many subassemblies to build up ahead of time and (b) so that he could watch for those particular jobs and not miss them. Unfortunately - this would also tell him whether or not his job was over-cycled and whether he could write a union grievance...

Similarly, there would be an inspection ticket for each major area (engine, chassis, trim, LH exterior, RH exterior). These would be gathered up and stapled together where they would follow the car through the build and then on through repair. Those inspection tickets would be thrown away in the shipping building; as a result they are super super rare (I know of only one set that survived for a vintage Pontiac build).

K